Zero no Mamushi
by Fayari
Summary: This is how their love developed in a world crossing school life filled with fighting, mystery, tennis, and some witchcraft and wizardry. There's one BIG problem though, he's damned TERRIFIED of the whole experience! Prince of Tennis X Zero no Tsukaima
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: It's pretty much obvious that I DO NOT own Prince of Tennis or Zero no Tsukaima, because if I did, I would be continuing both of the two series instead of making this fic…**

**Furthermore, if you want to completely enjoy the details of this fic, you must at least know the characteristics of the characters from both Prince of Tennis and Zero no Tsukaima. Although, both of the two series are so good that you can probably enjoy even if you're not really a fan.**

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Chapter 1: FIRST KISS kara hajimaru (It began with our first kiss) 

The courtyard's spacious plane was silent except for a few murmured conversations. From above, the green grass, spanning up until the pentagon formed by the walls of the academy, provided a terrific contrast to the black specks that were people standing around a single girl.

"_Please…" she thought as her hand shook. She steadied herself and took a deep breath… She needed to concentrate._

"To my servant that exists somewhere within the ends of the universe!" shouted the petite young lady.

Her long, wavy, strawberry-silk hair swayed ever so slightly as she pointed a thin wooden stick up to the sky with her right hand. She was wearing a long-sleeved, white button-up shirt, a black short skirt, long, black socks that went up to her thighs, plain black leather shoes, and a black cloth for a cape. At the parting of the cape in front, a large brass seal with a pentagram etched on it held the cape.

The other second years who have gathered around to watch her summoning, who were also clad in the same black capes that distinguished them as second year students of the Tristain Magic Academy, including the teacher, all showed signs of confusion.

"What kind of a spell is that?" curiously said a blonde girl whose hair was in big, long locks at the back of her head, with a large red ribbon tied to it.

"Well, at least it has some individuality…" said a blonde male to her, obviously trying to strike a conversation, with a little difficulty.

"To the holy, beautiful, and above most powerful familiar…" the young lady continued, "I appeal to you from my heart as I chant, Answer my guidance!!!"

As the teacher and the other students such as her watched in anticipation, she pointed her wand forward, and then…

PZHOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!

A huge explosion occurred, creating a momentary earthquake and with the magnitude of its force, throwing everyone backwards in a blaze of dark-brown smoke and debris.

There was a lot of screaming and coughing as the impact of the explosion hit the observing crowd of students as well as the teacher. One of them said "So, it will have come to this after all…"

"Are you alright, Montmorency?" the blond boy asked the girl he was talking to earlier. She was on her knees, and he was worried about the blank look she had on her face. "What's the matter?" In reply, the girl, still clutching her tiny frog of a familiar, merely pointed at something as if to say "Guiche, look…"

At where she was pointing, the smoke had already started to clear. There was the young lady who caused the explosion, standing over an unconscious figure.

The other students were apparently also staring at the strange sight.

"A human?!" Montmorency exclaimed.

"No matter how you look at it, he's just a commoner." stated another student.

"Yes, a commoner, no doubt" agreed Guiche.

Clearly in shock and total horror, the strawberry-silk-haired young lady stuttered "Th… This… This… is my holy, beautiful, and above most powerful… ?!" she continued to stare at the total humiliation that was before her.

* * *

The sun was blazing hot again today… it was the middle of summer. A lot of people were out and around, cooling themselves with iced drinks and popsicles, lounging around in the shade, or near the fountains. It was just another ordinary day…

"Moeruze, BUUUUURRRNING!" shouted a muscular brown-haired senior student. Brandishing a white and blue sports t-shirt with the name "Seigaku" printed at the back, he was wildly swinging his yellow tennis racket and shouting at the top of his lungs from behind the freshmen that have gathered beside the courts.

Though the war cry was deafening, none of the five other students with him that were all clad in the same outfit seemed surprised. They were all looking amused and relaxed.

It was just another ordinary day at Seishun Gakuen Tennis Club… or was it?

"Kawamura-kun is in burning mode, how energetic of him…" sighed one of the other senior students. This one had red-hair and a bandage on his right cheek. He was doing some jumping exercises and had just jumped up to a humanly impossible height, twisted thrice upside-down in midair, landed on his feet, and acted like it was nothing. "Ne, Ochibi?" he said, and then grabbed the young black-haired freshman next to him, pulling him into a headlock-slash-hug.

"You're one to talk, Eiji-senpai…" the freshman began, but he was quickly interrupted by a second person who also pulled him into a headlock-slash-hug.

"Echizen, after practice, let's go eat at the burger joint. I'm starving…" said the junior student to the annoyed freshman. The senpai's spiky black hair was getting in the freshman's cat-like eyes and it was irritating him. "Get off me, Momo-senpai…"

Another brown-haired senior student was looking at the scene and was grinning slightly (though how he could see was quite a mystery, with his perpetually closed eyes). "Saa -- Oishi, have you seen Tezuka? It's not normal for him to completely miss practice" he addressed to the person next to him.

"Ah, Fuji-san. He's with Ryuzaki-sensei" said the black haired, crew cut senior worriedly. He has been hitting exactly the same spot on the outside wall of the locker room for half an hour already. "But I'm really worried about Inui and Kaidoh. Kaidoh said he would come right after he finished running. He's never late even though he runs a dozen laps around the city. And Inui ran off almost immediately after he came here. Aaaah! What could be the reason?"

"Eto, Inui said something about collecting some weird data near the construction sight downtown…" Eiji interrupted. "He ran off after a dusty piece of green cloth hit him in the face earlier…" he recalled the event earlier that day.

"Mada Mada Dane…" Echizen called out. The others turned and looked at Echizen "Inui-senpai left three of his notebooks behind. He can't be collecting data without these…" and he began scanning the notes. The others looked at what was written as well.

In the first notebook, which was labeled "Matters of Caution", there were dozens of graphs and tables computing the angles, speeds, curvatures, and probabilities of the shots of various players, including Momo's Dunk Smash and Jacknife; Echizen's Twist serve and Drive B; Eiji and Oishi, the Golden Pair's formations; Tsubame Gaeshi, Higuma Otoshi, and Hakugei, Fuji's triple counters. At the last page was an index with a reference to Inui's collection of labeled "data collection" notebooks.

The second notebook was labeled "Tezuka". It was crammed full of data: movement speed, skill shots, dominant hand, graphs and tables of almost insanely infinite scenarios plotted out, and at the last page, in pencil, was written "Predictability: 0", all of which were in preparation for the day when Inui finally defeats the captain of the club.

The third notebook had the label "Kaidoh's Development". More than half the notebook was filled with training regimes, Inui juice recipes, spin magnitudes and directions for the many variations of the buggy-whip shot, angles of incidence per shot, as well as a separate sheet on the Magnus Effect on Kaidoh's "Snake Shots". Even so, this was the least full of the three. The other two were completely filled, but this one had twenty or so blank pages at the back, the last of which was marked with the text "Improvement Rate: 26.67 per month."

As the group was scanning the notebooks, a folded piece of paper fell from one of the data sheets. Eiji picked it up, and curious of what was written on it, read it aloud for the group.

"Ah? New Recipe for Juice: Haiiro (Gray). Look for ingredients…" Eiji read, but then he was shocked! "EEEEEEHHHHH?! NEAR THE CONSTRUCTION SITE DOWNTOWN??!!

At this, the entire group turned blue and a cold, dead breeze flew past them. They were horrified, grimacing at the thought of what sick, contorted, and evil concoction Inui would make all of them drink the next time they meet.

The fear that this thought has brought upon them wiped the group's initial concerns clear out of their heads and replaced it with long moments of psychological trauma…

* * *

"_There's someone talking…" the figure thought as he opened his eyes. He saw the face of a young lady with strawberry-silk hair coming from his side in front of him, and he figured that he was lying down, based from the background of the sky. "What did she say?" he thought. Then he sat up, looked around and was confused, "What is this place?" he wondered._

_The girl said something he couldn't understand and he figured it was in a different language. "English? No it's not… it sounds German or French… and this…" he thought, still looking confused. "This… it feels just like the time I got lost in Germany when we went to see Tezuka-buchou."_

"Well, at least it met your big declaration!" said a 'well-endowed' redhead. "Summoning forth a commoner." And she and some other students started snickering.

"I just made a small mistake!" said the girl defensively. _"Damn, that Kirche…" she thought._

"It's just like you, Louise the Zero. You always surpass our expectations!" said a plump blonde boy carrying his own owl familiar. At this, all the other students started laughing boisterously.

_Seeing this laughter, and noticing the annoyed look on the girl's face, he tried to speak. "Hey, wait!" he started to shout, but…_

"SHUT UP!" the girl screamed. "Mr. Colbert!" she addressed the balding, middle-aged teacher carrying a big wooden staff. "What is it?" he replied.

"Please allow me to summon once more!" she requested.

"I cannot allow that." He shook his head.

"Why is that?" she asked desperately.

"This Ceremony is a holy ritual that decides the eternality of a mage's life" he lectured sternly. "Asking to re-do it is a disgrace to the entire ritual. Whether you approve of it or not, it is decided that he is your familiar."

"_I have no idea what he's saying…" he looked totally confounded. He then spotted a way that was not too crowded. "This is too creepy…" he thought. So he decided to get away from the conversing foreigners while they were distracted._

The commoner stood and opened his snake-like eyes fully. He ignored the layer of dust that he had on his sleeveless black shirt and white shorts and picked up an oddly shaped bag with him and started rummaging through it. While doing so, the green cloth tied around his head fell to the floor. The reason why it fell was because it was ripped at the knot and had come loose. He bent down to retrieve it and saw that a small piece was missing. Upon seeing this, he let his arms hang limply and started to walk away, bag at his back. He let out a small sound.

Fshuuuuu…

The small sound caught the girl's attention. When she saw that her familiar was walking away, she tugged at the collar of his shirt, and stopped him.

"But I have never heard of using a commoner as a familiar before!" she demanded, and the students all laughed again, annoying the young lady even more.

"Whether he's a commoner, or whatever, I do not accept any exceptions. Continue with the ritual." The teacher said sternly.

"Eeeehhhh??!! … With This?" she said, flustered and hesitant, and she poked the commoner twice at his back with her wand.

"Hurry this up! Or do I really have to expel you?" said the teacher threateningly, much to the glee of the other students.

"I understand…" the young lady said with defeat and hesitation in her voice.

Having been rudely grabbed at the collar and poked twice from behind, the commoner made a small grunt of disapproval. He turned around and glared menacingly at whoever dared to do that to him. But the annoyance in his face was immediately replaced by a startled look when he saw that the strawberry-silk haired girl was approaching him with a wooden stick.

"Go, go Louise!" cheered one student jokingly, "Woohoo!" cooed some boys at the back of the crowd.

"Be grateful" she addressed the commoner, "Normally, no one would get this from a Noble in their lifetime!" she said angrily, and then she started chanting.

"_What the hell is this crazy girl doing… some weird chanting? I can't understand… AAAAHHH!" he mentally screamed. She was saying something long again…_

"My name is Louise Francois le Bran de la Valier" she chanted, and then pointed her wand at her soon to be official familiar. "To the penchant that holds the five powers, bless this one, and yield this as my familiar." She put her hand on his right cheek and slowly drew her face closer to his. The commoner started moving. "Just sit still" she said, and closed her eyes, getting even closer.

"_What the heck are you planning to do?!" he screamed. Her lips were getting closer to his. He turned bright red at the thought, she was only inches away._

"_W… w… Wait! W… wait… wha… Oi… I mean… wait…" _

_And she was kissing him… a long, sweet kiss…_

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**Everything is not as straightforward as it seems, so dont jump to too many conclusions before hand...**

**Read and Review: and just one reminder: flames you send shall be used to burn the kilogram of marijuana that I will stick up your nostrils if you do. Dope is for dopes, and flames are from dopes too!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: It's pretty much obvious that I DO NOT own Prince of Tennis or Zero no Tsukaima, because if I did, I would be continuing both of the two series instead of making this fic…**

**Keith Kurogane – my one and only review, thanks! How I wish there were more… Heck, I'll even accept flames with no retort!**

**Read & Review: I removed the threat… You don't even have to log in! Though I swore to myself that I will not become dependent on reviews, at least 5 per chapter will do, or else I won't continue this story. I don't even care if you review five times!**

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Chapter 2: Futari no koi no HISTORY (The history of our love) 

The sun was blazing hot again today… it was the middle of summer. A lot of people were out and around, cooling themselves with iced drinks and popsicles, lounging around in the shade, or near the fountains. It was just another ordinary day…

The surrounding buildings were getting blurry. They whisked past him as he ran through the city. His sleeveless black shirt and white shorts were already soaked in his sweat. So was the green bandanna holding his hair from his face, and yet, he completely ignored that fact as he continued to run. He was breathing heavily, and hissing occasionally to calm himself down as he ran, with his tennis bag slung at his back.

"_Just one more lap around the city, then I'll go to practice…"_ he thought to himself. He was supposed to go to Seishun Gakuen to practice with the other Seigaku Regulars, but running a dozen laps around the city every morning has always been a routine since he asked his senpai, Inui, to make a training regime for him. When Inui suggested that he run 4-5 laps around the city every day, he decided to triple that amount of training, as well as double the number of running sessions per day. As such, after practice, he was planning on doing more running.

He was slightly distracted from his intense focus by an eerie light green glow from the ground, just a dozen or so yards away in front of him. He slowed down as he approached the glow, and found out that the light was coming from an open manhole near the construction site. He peered down the manhole with his snake-like eyes with just a tiny bit of curiosity, and then looked away as if it was only mildly interesting and wasn't worth paying much attention to.

The wind had picked up a bit. He was starting to walk away to continue his running, but…

"LOOK OUT!!!" a sharp scream cut through the air from behind him. Before he could turn around, a searing pain exploded simultaneously from his back and the back of his head. He heard a ripping sound, just before he slammed face first into the concrete. Then, everything went black.

He opened his eyes, and then immediately grimaced in pain. The concrete was the first thing he saw, and then he realized that he was pinned to it. It had finally registered in his brain that something had hit him, hard. He rolled to the side a bit, so that he could be lying down, and then he saw what had hit him.

A thin young man about his age was also lying face down on the concrete. Near his legs was an extremely dented bicycle, which he assumed was so because of the accident. The young man's slick, red hair looked a little bit familiar. Before long he realized to whom it belonged to.

"YOU! KAMIO!" he glared at the person. The person came to and pushed himself up from the concrete. He also grimaced in pain, but his pained expression was immediately replaced with a look of terror as he realized who exactly he had knocked down.

"K… K… Kaidoh?!" the person stuttered in fear, while he was being glared upon by the ill-tempered young man.

"YOU…" The furious man continued to glare. He stood up and grabbed the person's collar with both hands. He raised the person, who was all the while shaking in horror, onto a standing position. "DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE KAORU KAIDOH!!!"

At this, the person's fear got the better of him, and his knees gave way. Both of them teetered off balance and then felt a sudden loss of ground. They were falling into nothingness, surrounded by light green light, and then, darkness.

"ANSWER MY GUIDANCE!" lingered in the void…

_

* * *

And yet, somehow, it was way too short for his liking…_

"It seems you have now completed your contract with your servant" the teacher told the strawberry-silk haired girl, after the kiss was over.

"_WHAT THE FRIGGIN' HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" the commoner screamed at the two. He had finally woken up from the shock of the kiss. But as soon as he finished the question, his body began to let off steam, literally, and his flesh started to feel like it was burning. He grimaced in pain._

"_WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" he shouted at the girl. _

"It'll end soon. It's just etching the familiar rune" the young lady replied to the shouting commoner.

Then, he screamed in pain and clutched his hand. Something was being magically seared onto the back of his hand. The teacher stared at it with a slightly concerned look, whilst the young lady was indifferently watching the event unfold.

_And then, he blacked out._

* * *

A tall, bespectacled, black-haired, young man was standing near the edge of a manhole. His green jogging pants were dusty and muddy, because he had been running as fast as he could to this area. He was clutching a small piece of green cloth that struck his glasses half an hour ago. He had recognized it as a part of his kouhai's bandana. From the consistency of the dirt on it, he figured that it originated from this construction site. What he saw there was not a great sight. 

An extremely dented bicycle was lying like a scrap heap near the manhole. There were clear footprints on the grey layer of dust on the concrete, as well as two blurred human outlines on it. The footprints were made by Puma's, Kaidoh's favorite brand of running shoes, and the outline on the ground had the same build and height as Kaidoh. A pair of footprints seemed to stop half into the manhole, backwards.

As he looked down into the darkness of the manhole, he started to calculate the possibility that his kouhai, Kaidoh, had fallen into it…

* * *

When the commoner came to, he was lying on a pile of straw on the floor. He sat up and saw that the room was a Victorian-style bedroom. It was already dark and the room was illuminated by a single burner on a wooden table. 

"_Where am I? Lost?" he wondered, looking around curiously. He was about to stand up when he heard a girl's voice. He turned his head to look to his right and saw the young lady from before._

"So you've finally awakened…" said the young lady. "After much discontent, I have given up and have decided to take you as my familiar. Be grateful." She walked to a large, wooden dresser discontentedly.

"_WHERE IS THIS PLACE YOU HAVE ABDUCTED ME TO?! RETURN ME HOME OR ELSE...!" he shouted angrily at the girl, obviously not understanding a single word that she said. But before he could shout any further, he was silenced by what the girl was doing._

She opened the dresser and hung her black cape inside, then closed the dresser door. She unbuttoned her short, black skirt and let it drop to the floor at her feet. She started unbuttoning her long-sleeved, white button-up shirt, and one by one, she undid the buttons, revealing a pink, translucent, night-dress. She then tossed her discarded clothing in the commoner's face.

"Go wash those. Even though there's a language barrier and you don't understand my words, as a servant, you should understand at least this much" she said.

_When he removed the clothing from his face, he blushed for a moment but then quickly shook it off. He looked at the scantily-clad girl straight in the eyes with his own snake-like eyes and stood up. He approached the girl and grabbed her roughly by the shoulders. Their faces were inches away, hers, a slightly surprised look, and his… total fury._

"_WHAT THE HELL DO YOU PLAN TO DO WITH THIS SEDUCTION?!" he shouted at directly at her face._

"It's so annoying!" the girl screamed in exasperation, covering her ears. "All it does is shout, shout, shout! It's like a viper, ready to crush anything…" but then she suddenly remembered something.

"There's that mute spell that I learned last year." She got her wand from the table and raised it above her head. "I think it was something like… Immediately hold your silence and answer my demand!" pointing it at the ranting commoner, and then…

PZHOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!

A huge explosion occurred again, and it filled the room with brown smoke and strong wind. The young lady's beautiful strawberry-silk hair waved backwards as the wind blew, but it landed just as beautifully as it would have stayed had there been no wind.

The commoner's body was smoldering. He was charred and covered in soot, and the girl's garments were burnt to cinders. But amazingly, he was alive.

"This is so strange…" she said.

"What the hell…" he muttered, coughing up ashes.

The girl let out a tiny yelp of surprise.

The commoner stood up and his muscles tensed. His fists were closed and his arms were shaking in anger. He let out a small hiss…

Fshuuuuu…

"Is… that… THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!!!! DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE KAORU KAIDOH!!!!"

He had snapped. He was still grasping the girl by the shoulders. He raised her up a foot off the ground and nearly threw her back when…

"I understand… I understand!" she said, surprised by the commoner's newfound ability to talk with sense.

"Ah?" he asked, calming down from his rage in an instant. "What the… you can speak Japanese?"

"What's the meaning of this? It was a spell of silence" she wondered aloud, and then sighed in exasperation. "So I screwed up again…"

"Kaoru Kaidoh? Is that your name?" she asked the commoner.

"Yes" he replied. "Why am I here?" he asked her.

"Isn't it obvious? You were summoned by me…" she explained, "as a familiar."

"Familiar?!" he asked, shocked, and only then did he notice the strange mark on his hand.

* * *

"This bike looks familiar…" the spiky-haired junior said, "I think I've used it before." 

He was talking to the seven people with him. Though they were supposed to be practicing tennis at the Seishun Gakuen tennis courts, they all cut the session short and were now at the construction site, at the urgent call by one of them to all come. They were currently investigating the area, tennis bags still slung at their backs.

"Momo-senpai, it's Kamio's bike. You stole it once and then broke it, remember? On the day I bought my grip tape…" the youngest of them all said, recalling the event.

"Aahh, did I Echizen-kun?" the junior asked nervously, knowing fully now that he indeed did so.

"Saa, Inui" asked a brown haired senior. "You think that Kaidoh could be in trouble?" he faced his tall, bespectacled friend, though how he did it was a mystery, with his perpetually closed eyes.

'Yes Fuji. Probability of Kaidoh being in trouble in this situation, 92.8" he replied. He pushed his glasses up a bit and then stared at the manhole. He thought he saw a glint of green light from the darkness. "Did any of you see that?"

All of them nodded in unison. They each thought silently for a few moments. Then finally someone broke the silence.

"Eeh? Kaidoh is down there? Should we go after him then?" another brown haired senior asked hesitantly. He looked mildly nervous at the thought, but the anxiety was quickly replaced when…

"Saa, here's your racket, Taka-san" said Fuji, holding out to him a yellow racket. As soon he took it from Fuji, he completely changed.

"Moeruze, BUUUUURRRNING!" Taka shouted at the top of his lungs. He recklessly tried to run and jump into the manhole, but stopped immediately when a deep voice started.

"Taka, calm down. Let's not get careless" a golden-haired young man commanded. Everyone turned around as the man walked towards the manhole, tennis ball at hand.

"Tezuka-buchou, what are…?" Momo, short for Momoshiro, started to ask, but Tezuka showed no inclination to reply.

"He is testing how far the drop is since there isn't any ladder to climb down with…" a short haired senior answered Momo's unfinished question.

"Nya, Oishi? Is he really?" the only red haired person in the group asked, pulling Oishi into a crushing hug, purring innocently like a cat all the while

"Eiji…" Oishi pleaded, and then his attention turned back to Tezuka, who was already holding the ball directly above the manhole.

He dropped the ball into the darkness of the manhole, and something incredible happened… the manhole started glowing light-green. The light lingered for a few seconds, and then it was gone again. At this point, Taka couldn't restrain himself anymore, and he excitedly jumped in…

"Come on, baby!" he shouted as he fell.

The rest of the team looked at each other for a while, expecting a cry of pain, but instead, the same thing happened, the green light appeared for a few seconds, and then both the light and Taka were gone.

They all stared in amazement and silence. They were waiting for another one of them to jump in next. They all stood still for a very long time before somebody moved in.

"Saa… see you on the other side!" Fuji said, and he promptly jumped after Taka.

The rest of them sighed as the green light enveloped Fuji for a moment and then faded out. One by one, the rest of them lined up to jump down.

Eiji scrambled against the rest to get to the first spot, with Oishi trying to restrain him.

"Nya, wait for me Fuji-ko!!!" he shouted, dibing into the manhole.

"Eiji!" Oishi got drawn into the hole as well. The green light flashed, and they were gone.

"Why do I have to go?" Echizen asked, not in the least bit interested to jump in. At that point, Momo pulled him into a headlock-slash-hug, for the second time that day.

"What, are you scared? Aren't you the great Ryoma Echizen?" he taunted him, a wide grin on his face. Just as Echizen was about to make a sarcastic remark, Momo suddenly jumped in, dragging Echizen with him into the light.

Inui looked at them all go. He and Tezuka were the only ones left standing there.

Tezuka looked at him and then asked "Are you going?"

"Of course, it's good data…" he replied.

* * *

Both of them stepped down nonchalantly, down into the light. 

And then, the void consumed them all…

"This is Tristein Kingdom within Halkeginia Continent, and you are a student from that school…" Kaidoh repeated what the girl just explained, pointing at her.

The girl was taken aback, and she had an annoyed expression on her face.

"I will not allow a familiar to address me like that. I am Louise, Louise de la Valiel" she declared proudly.

"And I'm the familiar that you summoned? Those things that accompany sorcerers, the same as those from movies and manga…" he stated to himself quietly, staring at the wooden floor all the while.

Louise let out a sad sigh. "Why is my familiar a commoner? Why not a dragon or a griffon? I wanted something cooler!" she complained loudly, her eyes closed and teeth gritted. It looked like this was her way to calm herself down.

When she calmed down, she opened her eyes.

"Kaoru Kaidoh?" she asked in surprise, because not even his outline was in her midst.

Her familiar had disappeared, leaving the wooden door of her dormitory room creaking, slightly open.

"He ran away? My familiar? You're kidding, right?!"

* * *

**Everything is not as straightforward as it seems, again... so don't jump to too many conclusions... **

**Awww, come on. reviewing doesn't take that long! Just five review... **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Eh, same disclaimer. I don't think any one who makes Prince of Tennis or Zero no Tsukaima fanfics owns any of the two series.**

**Euqnip -** **my second reviewer. Thanks, for teaching me parts of the Canon and Fur Elise. You should become a piano teacher.**

**I've contracted a highly contagious disease that is spreading from the authors using this website. It's called SLORS, the Severe Lack of Reviews Syndrome. And how do you get this syndrome? It has to do with getting only 2 reviews after every fifty or so hits on your story.**

**If you don't want to contract this disease, take preventive action. Start by giving me a review, and I'll give you an immunity booster in the form of my review. Godspeed!**

* * *

Chapter 3: Kono unmei ni mahou kaketa (As if casting a spell over this fate)

"AAAAAHHHH!!!!" Kaidoh yelled as loud as he could as he ran out of the room and into the hallway. He had always been creeped out by supernatural objects even though he hates to admit it, and he probably won't ever do so. But that strawberry-silk haired girl said she was a sorcerer and her intentions for him were clear enough. She was planning on making him her servant.

"I AM NOT STAYING HERE!! NO FREAKIN' WAY IN HELL!!!" he continued his terrified rant as he jumped seven or eight steps at a time down a spiral staircase.

In the hallway on the floor below, a blonde boy wearing a black cape was charming a young lady with long brown hair that matched her long brown cape. The boy was Guiche, the student talking with the girl Montmorency earlier that day.

"I'm really good at making soufflé" the young lady said.

"I would love to try that out" Guiche replied sweetly.

"Really?!" she asked in excitement.

"Of course, Katie. I cannot tell lies in front of your eyes" he replied romantically. At this point it was obvious that Guiche was an expert at charming the ladies. The girl was caught in his words. All she could do was mutter…

"Guiche-sama…" she said in total admiration.

"There cannot exist any deceitfulness to my feelings towards you…" he said, enhancing the moment… before it was completely ruined.

A loud crash at the far end of the hallway broke the solemn atmosphere. Kaidoh had lost his footing and had tumbled into the hallway, interrupting the two's romantic endeavor. The long, painful roll down the stairs and the feel of the rock-hard granite floor on his face, however, did not deter him in the least. He recovered instantly, and launched himself running again, heading straight for the two, not even breathing heavily from the run, or the fall.

He was still far off when Guiche spotted the interruption.

"It's the commoner that Louise summoned" he said, surprised.

"Oh, the one from today's ceremony. It's big news even among the First Years" the girl called Katie added.

"He suddenly fell unconscious and was unable to move so it was a big pain for us" he stated blandly and loudly, enough so that even the commoner should here what he was saying.

He was nearing them when Guiche called out to him.

"Do you not have gratitude towards a noble that troubled his hands for you?" he asked sardonically.

"MOVE OUT OF THE WAY, YOU IRRITATING MORON!!!" Kaidoh ran past them in a blaze of total fury, without so much as a glance of gratitude to Guiche. On the contrary, he nearly knocked both of them out of the way in his hurry to find the exit to this medieval castle of a dormitory.

Guiche considered striking the rude commoner down, but then decided against it.

"What lack of etiquette…" he sighed to Katie.

Just then, another set of footsteps caught their attention as someone else approached. Then, Louise came into view, breathless from running.

"Louise. Right now your familiar…" he started to tell her, when she suddenly cut him off.

"Catch it for me. It ran away" she said breathlessly.

"The familiar you contracted with? Amazingly, being your familiar, I guess it isn't surprising it will defy common sense…" he said astounded.

"Stop being in awe and help me catch it!" she screamed at him.

Down another set of stairs, straight this time, he went, now jumping down freely, throwing all caution to the wind as he raced down, and turning right immediately after he spotted the exit from the bottom of the staircase. He passed two other students sitting closely beside each other at the base of the indoor fountain. The male had brown hair and was wearing a purple cape, and the female had red hair and was wearing a black cape. She was the same well-endowed girl who teased Louise earlier.

"Isn't that Louise the Zero's…" the male started.

"Yes, it's the commoner familiar" she completed his sentence.

And speak of the devil herself, Louise emerged from the stairway.

"It's over there!" she said, pointing to the running figure.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" the redhead called out to Guiche.

"Oh Kirche, you have to listen to this…" he started to reply, when Louise interrupted him again.

"Who cares?! It's gonna get away!" she said pointedly.

Kaidoh jumped the last eight steps and started running through the dark lawn. It was nighttime and the grass were a muddled green in the moonlight, but he didn't care.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN MAGIC?! GET ME OUT OF THIS CRAZY…" he said as he closed his eyes. He concentrated and then willed himself to run at his fastest. He thought for a moment that it was working, for he felt his body getting lighter and his legs moving faster. But then he realized that something was terribly wrong. The wind on his face had disappeared and he no longer felt his weight on the ground. He had had enough of it when he felt himself moving sideways. He opened his eyes. He was levitating.

"I would like it if you give in already. This is the second time I've had to levitate you" a familiar voice came from behind him.

When he looked back, four students had gathered to watch him in the air. One was the young lady who introduced herself to him, Louise. The other was the irritating blonde that he passed earlier. The other two, the brown-haired male and the redhead, were complete strangers, though he might have also passed them while he was running.

Guiche was pointing his wand, which happened to be concealed in a rose, at the commoner, moving him from side to side in mid-air.

"A familiar that ran away from its master?! That's hilarious!" Kirche said, laughing histerically.

Louise looked at her with contempt, before turning her attention to her runaway familiar in the air with her deep, gazing, strawberry-silk colored eyes.

"IS THIS REAL?!" Kaidoh asked, completely scared out of his wits at the thought of these religious cult or fantasy maniacs below him. That was before he saw a sight that completely drowned out of him the only remaining strand of glorious and more importantly, sane, reluctance that he was holding on to.

"WHAT THE HELL?!!!!" he roared in temporary insanity, staring at the two moons, the smaller one pink, while the larger one blue.

* * *

The sky was dark and moonless, at least from where they saw it. They could feel damp grass at their backs, as one by one each of them awakened and sat up. Each of them felt sore muscles as they did so, as if they had all taken a long fall from the night sky. Ignoring the pain, they all sat in eerie silence as they devised their immediate surroundings.

They were in a clearing. Thick trees were barely distinguishable from the background, encircling them with a kind of wooden silencer that buffered away the animal sounds in the nighttime. This state of silent observation was disturbed when someone coughed. They all directed their attention to the direction of the sound.

"Are you guys alright?" the mild–mannered voice of Takashi Kawamura asked concernedly. He was with them again, kneeling and supporting himself.

"Saa, Taka-san. Yes, we are. Where's your racket?" replied Fuji, who was dusting off his shoulder.

"It broke… I'll need a new one…" Taka replied sadly.

While they were talking, the rest of the group had started to stand up and crack their sore joints. It was relatively tranquil (considering Momoshiro's loudmouth attitude, Echizen's endless sarcasm about anything his senpai was saying, Eiji's tantrum and Oishi's maternal instinct trying to calm all of them down.) Tezuka was stoically observing their strange, dark environment and Inui was observing the team, writing down calmly on one of his green notebooks even in the darkness.

Suddenly, that usual air of crazy club discord disappeared when a loud war cry broke the tranquility. Every single one of them turned their heads towards the trees, listening intently, grasping the only weapons available to them, their loaded tennis bags and for Taka, the splintered handle of his broken yellow racket. It was a tense moment, their ears straining for the slightest sound, and they soon heard it again.

"MOMOSHIRO!!! DAMN YOU!!!" the muffled but somehow familiar growl ringed through the air.

Momoshiro stepped back in surprise. Fortunately in fact, for a split-second after that, a dark, lanky figure had jumped from the trees and had struck the exact spot that he had been standing at only a moment before.

The figure had slick red hair and sharp eyes that glinted with his rage. He looked up at Momoshiro and made a run at him in full speed. Momoshiro tried to evade the barking mad person but the person was too fast, his movements were completely blurred, like a bullet, and Momoshiro was taken down.

Momoshiro's fiery spirit took over. And he engaged the person in a yelling-slash-fistfight.

"KAMIO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" he screamed into the person's ear as he grabbed his collar.

"I KNEW THIS WAS ALL YOUR DOING! YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIS!!!!" came the reply, complete with a return grab to Momoshiro''s collar.

The two continued to scramble and bicker with each other until they both felt themselves being lifted off the ground by the back of their collars. Taka had grabbed them with one hand each, showing the insane strength that he possessed. He separated the two for a while until both of them calmed down.

They cooled off a bit after a few minutes, and the temporary peaceful silence that had occurred in that period was first disturbed by Kamio as he spoke calmly now.

"How did you guys get here?" he asked them all of them except Momoshiro, whom he had taken to avoiding. "Did you fall through the manhole as well?"

They all looked at each other in wonder. So Kamio had fallen into the mysterious glowing manhole. Taka picked up Momoshiro and stood him up. He looked sulkily away from Kamio and then asked the simplest of all questions.

"Where are we?"

"I don't know…" Kamio replied to the rest, even though Momoshiro asked the question. "I was riding on my… BICYCLE (looking accusingly and viciously at Momoshiro)… and I found out that ITS BRAKES WERE BROKEN (looking at Momoshiro again), and I couldn't stop. I collided with Kaidoh and we sort of… both fell into the glowing manhole…"

He explained about the proceeding darkness, then a bright light, and about how he fell from the sky.

"I saw more things fall from the sky, I would never have guessed that those would be you guys" he finished.

Suddenly, after being silent all the while, Inui suddenly started to talk.

"So, you were with Kaidoh when you fell. Where is he now?" he questioned him.

"Ah, I almost forgot." he replied. "In the darkness, we heard a girl's voice in a weird language. Kaidoh was holding my collar when we fell, you see, and a great white light appeared in front of both of us, but it only sucked in Kaidoh, and I got separated from him. I don't know where he is now…"

"Nya, Kaidoh-kun is missing!" Eiji said cheerfully. He leaped up an incredible height, above the thick tall trees and spun completely around, before dropping down lightly on his feet. "Let's go look! SEIGAKUUUU!!! And Kamio-kun of Fudomine too… FIGHT-O!!!!!!"

Some of them shouted with Eiji, getting fired up for the search. Tezuka, Fuji, Inui, and Echizen remained quiet…

"Let's not get careless…" Tezuka said. Immediately, everybody else quieted down, and Inui was furiously scribbling data in the dark.

"Senpais!" Echizen said smugly. "Where are we supposed to go?"

Momoshiro, Taka, Oishi, and Kamio had their spirits dampened by the freshman, but in reply, Eiji had a huge grin plastered on his face.

"Ne, Ochibi. You're getting slow…" he teased Echizen, who lowered his cap in front of his eyes, annoyed. "I've already planned our route. When I jumped up, I looked around and I saw a walled medieval castle-like place, just outside this forest. We go… that way!" pointing dramatically to one side of the clearing. They would have to go through the forest.

"Amazing, Eiji. Your ability to clearly see fast-moving objects as if they were in slow motion is so awesome!" Oishi encouraged Eiji, who confidently gave a V sign as thanks.

Their murmurs resonated in the air as they slowly and uncertainly made their way through the thicket to try and find their missing companion, when another series of cries suddenly cut through the air, interrupting the start of their search.

First, there came a low yell. They turned around, surprised by the sudden sound, ears alert for the sound again. Ten minutes, which, to them, seemed like an eternity, of careful listening after, there came another one, this time a girl's scream. They didn't have to wait longer, for in the next few seconds, five other yells were heard.

"Kamio, were any other people here when you came?" Inui asked.

"N-no… besides you guys, I didn't see or here anyone else…" Kamio replied.

"Let's go investigate!" Momo shouted excitedly, grabbing Echizen in the third headlock-slash-hug of the day and dashing towards the clearing, dragging Echizen with him like a football.

"Wait, Momo! What about Kaidoh?!" Oishi yelled at him.

Not even bothering to slow down, Momoshiro replied loudly.

"Mamushi can take care of himself!!!"

With a sigh, they all turned and followed him back.

"Heh… Echizen won't be very pleasant today, I can tell…" Fuji said with closed eyes and a smirk on his face to Tezuka.

"Fuji, don't let your guard down…" he replied seriously.

* * *

"Where is Kamio-kun?" wondered the black-haired senior aloud. He was wearing a black sports jacket with "FUDOMINE" printed at its back in red, with his black tennis bag slung behind him. He was wondering about why the team's speed demon missed their scheduled practice earlier today. "It's not like him to forget summer practice. Have you seen him earlier Ann-chan?"

"Nope, I wonder what happened to him" his brown haired sister replied. She was wearing a long-sleeved blue tennis shirt and a white short skirt above black cycling shorts. She was carrying a pink and white tennis bag.

"Tachibana-Buchou! Tachibana, uh, Ann-san!" called out a tall, bald junior with a white bandana. He was running toward them from the school entrance. "Something's happened to Kamio-kun! Come with me!"

The captain of Fudomine Gakuen Tennis Club and his sister were shocked by the news. They ran with the junior as they sped downtown. The other members, also clad in the same black sports jacket, were standing around a wreckage of what looks like the remains of a bicycle, Kamio's bicycle.

"What happened? Where's Kamio? And Shinji?" Tachibana asked seriously. Two of his Fudomine regulars were missing and the rest were gathered around a manhole. "Ishida, Sakurai… where are they?" he addressed his kouhais, the ones with a white bandana and reddish brown hair respectively.

"We think Kamio might have fallen into the manhole, Tachibana-buchou" the bandana-clad junior replied. "Shinji was muttering about the risks of sewage fumes earlier… I don't know where he is now…"

"Actually…" the reddish-brown haired junior interrupted. "While, Ishida-kun was getting you, Ibu-kun suddenly stopped muttering and jumped into the manhole before we could stop him. It was weird though…" he added.

"Why? What was weird about that? Have you called for help yet?" rapidly asked the worried captain. He was getting a bit angry that they, his beloved friends, were not doing anything about the situation. "Uchimura, Mori…" he said as two of his kouhais went up to him.

This time the short junior student wearing a black cap answered. Beside him was a black haired junior looking dejectedly at the concrete.

"Well, Tachibana-buchou, you see…" he tried to reason with the captain, seeing his frustrated face. He looked to his doubles partner beside him for help, whispering "Mori… help me out…" but he in turn kept quiet. "The manhole glowed green when Shinji jumped in, so we… no, we didn't call anybody else, sorry…" he resigned himself, looking dejectedly at the concrete as well.

"We have to rescue them both!" Ann, who had been utterly quiet before, suddenly blurted out.

"What are we?" Tachibana Kippei asked suddenly.

The worry in all of the team members' faces was replaced with surprise by the sudden question. They looked up at their captain, who was dead serious again, like his usual tournament self.

"We are Fudomine!" shouted Ishida, and the rest followed his lead.

"WHAT ARE WE?!" this time, both Kippei and Ann asked loudly.

"FUDOMINE!!!!" all the rest replied.

"Well, see you later!" Ann suddenly jumped into the manhole. Exactly as Uchimura described it, the manhole flashed an eerie green light right after Ann jumped in.

Kippei followed directly after her, with the same result.

With a look of hesitation in each of their faces, they one by one jumped into the manhole.

* * *

**More to come soon. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Still the same disclaimer… and notice the summary change, by the way.**

**Euqnip and creampuff520 - thanks for putting this fic in you favorites list, and for telling me to update soon.**

**Synchronized reviews are the next big thing…**

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* * *

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Chapter 4: Kimi ga totsuzen awarareta! (You suddenly appeared!)

"Return me to my world" Kaidoh stated bluntly, with his calm husky voice. It showed a bit of hoarseness from all the roaring he did earlier.

Brought back to Louise's Victorian-style bedroom, he was currently seated on the varnished wooden floorboards, staring menacingly at the strawberry-silk haired girl standing a meter away in front of him. He was holding his filthy green bandana in his dusty hands, letting his medium-length matted jet-black hair down without a care. Around his neck was a large, pad-locked, black collar attached to a long, thick chain, fastening him to the wall and preventing him from running away again.

"Impossible" Louise replied. She was slowly but unworriedly unclasping the seal on her black cape.

Kaidoh was too preoccupied to notice her behavior. His head was throbbing horribly, trying desperately to take in everything he had just experienced.

_A glowing manhole… falling into nothingness… a blinding, white light… people in strange clothing speaking in a foreign language… the kiss… the shock and awkwardness from the kiss… the burning sensation in his flesh… unconsciousness… magic and sorcerers, familiars and Louise… running faster than ever before… levitation…_

He shook his head vigorously to keep himself from being overwhelmed in dread. When he got his nerve back, he closed his snake-like eyes and let out a long hiss…

Fshuuuuu…

He had put himself in deep concentration, and then started to speak calmly to Louise again.

"Why?" he asked bluntly, maintaining the same monotonous voice like before.

He only used this monotony when he was seriously talking with someone (even more seriously than he does in everyday life), usually preferring to shun himself out of conversations, speaking only when spoken to, and to never initialize conversations, even to his teammates, about his private life, the life outside tennis.

In reply to his question, Louise nonchalantly tossed her black cape into his face. It flapped over him, covering his head under the black cloth, which he pulled off himself with a bit of difficulty. She was now calmly unbuttoning her long-sleeved, white button-up shirt, slowly revealing the pink, translucent, night-dress she was wearing earlier that night.

"It does not matter where you're from…" she declared. "The contract is absolute."

At this, she finished unbuttoning her shirt, so she unbuttoned her short, black skirt and let it drop to the floor like earlier that night. She bundled up her shirt and skirt and threw them both into her familiar's face.

He suppressed his extreme desire to hurt this girl who was treating him like a servant, yet the irritation still manifested in his face. The irritation, however, was soon washed out by the blush slowly creeping into his face at the sight.

For a fleeting fraction of a second, he lost control of his senses. The same thing had happened when she had kissed him. But he soon regained his composure, and looked away, his face, a light red.

"What are you doing?!" he asked, actually breaking his monotone for the first time.

"I'm about to sleep so I'm changing" she explained, thinking that the answer was obvious.

She made a soft snap with her fingers and the flame from the single burner on the wooden table went out, bathing the room in the darkness and moonlight of the night.

Kaidoh kept his eyes averted, with good reason, for Louise had just slipped off her night dress.

"Why don't you do that where I'm not?" he asked, irritated a bit by the young lady's lack of awkwardness. He was trying (and failing) horribly to maintain his composure.

"Why?" she asked, without the slightest hint of embarrassment in her voice.

"Are you fine with a man seeing you like this?" he growled at her, to which he promptly got a night dress in the face.

"A man?" she asked him. Something about her tone leaked out that she was seriously asking him that question, not as an insult, yet he was still very much offended. "You're just a familiar."

"What?!" he roared at her.

This time, his question was totally ignored. The young lady had changed her underwear as well, throwing the used garment at her familiar's face, causing him to turn a deeper shade of crimson. She then slipped on a light pink sleeping gown and climbed into a double-sized, four-poster, green-curtained bed with yellow sheets.

Though he intended to not waste his energy in this predicament, his rage overcame him bit by bit, driving him to the edge of his patience. He let out a long, slow hiss to calm himself down…

Fshuuuuu…

"Well then, go wash those" she ordered him, interrupting the calm state he was trying to put himself into.

"I refuse" he stated, dead serious.

His reply brought a hint of annoyance to the young lady's face, and he could sense it, even though she was lying in a position where she was facing the window, with her back turned to him.

"Who do you think will care for you?" she replied in an irritated voice, confirming the hunch he had. "You're my familiar, right? Cleaning, washing, and other miscellaneous activities are all naturally your duty."

A look of surprise made its way to Kaidoh's face. She had a good point, although he was not planning on taking her whims just lying down. His pride would never allow him to do so, especially since the lady is not even older than he is, and worse, is a complete stranger.

"Also, prepare my clothes in the morning. Rest assured. If you work properly then you'll be fed…" her voice lowering to barely a whisper.

He was planning on arguing back, but he noticed that her breathing had changed, and when he stood up to look at her face, her eyes were closed and her expression was relaxed. Her hands seemed to have been tightly grasping the sheets before, but were now half-open. She was already asleep.

With a sigh, he looked to his left and saw the pile of straw he woke up on earlier that night. He walked to it and lied down. He was still fuming from the argument, but he had to make the best of things. And he needed sleep, he needed the energy for the next day, he needed to calm down…

Fshuuuuu…

* * *

"Eh?! Ann-chan?" Momoshiro gasped comically. He had let go of his annoyed kouhai, Echizen, who was coughing, trying to catch his breath because he had been dragged like a football earlier. 

"Momoshiro-kun?" Ann asked in reply. She was sitting on a dark figure sprawled on the ground. Five other figures were near her, cracking their joints and rubbing their sore spots from the fall they just had.

"Tachibana Ann-chan…" a low murmur came from the sprawled figure underneath her. "Although you are our beloved captain's little sister and the beloved team manager, and although you have been a very valuable asset to the entire team of Fudomine, I would like you to please, if you don't mind, get off me…" the figure muttered on.

She had a surprised look on her face as she tried to scramble up so she could get off her friend.

Momoshiro offered his hand to her, and she was about to take up his offer, but the helpful atmosphere quickly dissipated.

Kamio had just tackled Momoshiro ferociously. He knocked his spiky-headed target clean off his feet and onto the ground a few feet away. He replaced Momoshiro by offering his hand to Ann instead, making her look curiously at the two as she rose up…

"…and anytime you might feel like sitting on me, I would gladly oblige, although my back would not, but after all, you are the beloved captain's little sister…" the figure was still muttering, yet no one took notice, all of them being used to his murmur-like ramblings.

"Shinji-kun, are you alright?" Ann and Kamio asked simultaneously, interrupting the person's self-directed monologue.

"Why, yes. Thank you both for your concern…" he replied. He had spotted another familiar face in the form of the freshman in the white and red cap.

"Echizen" he went up to the now scowling freshman, who quickly turned stoic.

Echizen turned to him and raised a hand to signal a greeting, and then quickly lowered it again.

"How's the product?" Shinji asked in his usual monotone. He was referring to the black grip tape that they were both after, which ended up in Echizen's hands as the result of an impromptu tennis skill contest held between the two.

"It's good" Echizen replied in an equally monotonic voice.

"You must lend it to me sometime…" Shinji continued.

"It's running out" Echizen replied indifferently.

They continued this conversation of short one-liners, while the rest of the two tennis teams started to gather together.

In a rare moment of coordination, Kamio and Momoshiro pulled both of them in to the group.

"So you're saying that Kaidoh is lost in this strange place?" Kippei asked, looking at Fuji, who had been talking earlier.

"Saa, he is, Tachibana-kun. So we were going to look for him, and then you guys suddenly appeared" he replied with his creepy smile and closed eyes.

"Everybody!" Tachibana Kippei and Tezuka Kunimitsu called out. The two teams, Fudomine Tennis Club and Seishun Gakuen Tennis Club, all stood at attention, facing their respective captains.

"Do not let your guard down…" Tezuka spoke in his usual deep, stoic voice that commanded attention even from the other team. "Stay together, we will first find our common comrade, Kaidoh."

"Though we may be enemies in the courts, we must band together now. After we find Kaidoh, we will figure out a way to get back home" Tachibana added.

A short moment of silence filled the air.

"SEIGAKU!" Oishi, Seigaku's vice-captain yelled, interrupting the silence.

"FIGHT!" everybody on the Seigaku team answered.

"What are we?!" Kamio, Fudomine's vice-captain yelled as well.

"FUDOMINE!" everybody on the Fudomine team answered.

"Let's go!"

All of them were fired up as they started the search for the second time, this time, with even more of them together.

However, Eiji, usually the most energetic of them all, was relatively silent. He had a half-confused, half-curious face as he looked up at the sky, even though no one else had noticed. He had seen the faint blue glow of the moon just near the edge of the horizon, in the same direction that they were going to. But in addition to the glow from that moon, he also saw another glow, this time the source was a smaller, pink globe very near to the blue moon.

"Two moons?" he remarked, totally puzzled.

He was still walking forward, however, even though he was looking up at the sky, since he could sense obstacles in his path and avoid them easily. Distractedly, he walked onwards. He tried rubbing his eyes in an attempt to test if what he was seeing was true. Just as he was doing so, he walked under the shade of the forest trees as he followed the group in front of him, effectively hiding the two moons from his view. When they were all under the moonlight again, clouds had covered parts of the night sky and he could only see one blue-tinted moon.

"Eh? Keep up, Eiji!" Oishi shouted to his doubles partner from the front of the pack.

"I'm coming, wait!" Eiji playfully replied as he sped up, dismissing what he just saw as his imagination playing tricks on him.

* * *

He roughly pulled off the yellow sheets off of her sleeping form. The sudden movement was enough to stir her from her slumber, but it wasn't enough to fully awaken her. 

"Who are you?" Louise groggily asked him.

"Here, your clothes" Kaidoh said, tossing her folded uniform onto her chest.

She looked at it with a befuddled expression, as she did not yet realize what it was, or what she was supposed to do with it.

He let out an exasperated sigh, which unexpectedly, sounded like a hiss…

Fshuuuuu…

As he did so, the entire incident yesterday came flooding into her memory as she yawned out the remaining grogginess she still had.

"Oh yeah, my familiar… Didn't I just summon you yesterday?" she finally realized, though still a bit sleepily.

She looked at the bundle of clothes.

"Where's my underwear?"

"I don't know" he monotonously said, though his face was light red at the thought.

"In the bottom drawer" she indicated to him.

"Why don't you do it yourself?!" he growled, glaring at her with his snake-like eyes.

"I'll take away your meal, then" she threatened, glaring right back at him with all the ferocity she had.

He let out another exasperated sigh, and turned around; making the chain his collar was attached to clank noisily. He opened the bottom drawer, grabbed the first one he saw, tossed it to her, and closed the drawer, all done in less than three seconds. He remained with his back turned to her as she changed her underwear. She then tossed the rest of her clothes to her familiar, and he promptly ignored her, suppressing his rage.

"Dress me" she ordered him.

"I refuse. Put on your own clothes" he replied bluntly.

This brought a half-annoyed, half-dumbfounded look to Louise's face.

"When there's a servant, a Noble never puts on her own clothes!" she spoke heatedly.

"I refuse" he replied bluntly again.

"Then no meal for you. I won't take off the chain" she said smugly.

Despite his pride, he gave in. In any case, his self-control against women was something he highly prided himself in.

He proceeded quickly and efficiently as he dressed her. After which, he glared at her expectantly, the thick, long chain in hand.

"Take this off" he said indifferently. "As you promised"

"Fine…" she said, irritated.

She took out a small silver key from her skirt pocket and held it up with her right hand. With her left hand, she pulled him down by the collar to about her eye level.

Even though he was already slouching, letting his arms hang limply, Kaidoh was still taller than Louise, so he had too slouch even more while she worked on the large pad-lock.

He stared at her long, wavy, strawberry-silk hair, breathing deeply, waiting for her to finish, and all the while observing her.

To him, as long as she stayed calm, she seemed alright, almost lady-like. It seemed that her claim of nobility wasn't as far-fetched as he had thought.

She caught him staring at her…

"What?" she asked him, still irritated with his earlier lack of respect towards her.

"Nothing" he looked away.

She opened the collar and threw it to the floor. Then, she walked past him and took a small wooden stick, the same one she used earlier that night to accidentally create the explosion, off the table.

He rubbed his sore throat, and then, he let out a sigh of relief, which also, and unexpectedly, sounded like a hiss…

Fshuuuuu…

"Let's go" she ordered him.

"Where?" he asked her.

"Breakfast, of course" she answered.

* * *

The sun rose on the far horizon, bathing the group in life-giving sunlight as they arrived wearily at their destination. 

They had walked all night, moving through the thicket of trees and shrubs in the jungle. Most of them were tired, but not wiped out. They were, after all, the regulars of two of the best tennis teams in Japan, so they had to have more-than-average endurance.

However, both Momoshiro and Kamio were, almost literally, dead beat. They had been fist-fighting and wrestling each other all night as they walked, and they had exhausted most of their stamina. However, they were still going at it, neither refusing to give up and admit defeat to the other.

Ann was walking behind the two, stifling a laugh at their ridiculous antics. Even though she was a bit confused at their unusual behavior, it was hilarious nonetheless.

As they approached the walls of the castle-like structure from the last trees at the edge of the forest they had just went through, they saw a large, silver gateway with strange markings carved into it. They passed under its sentinel-like stone arc and looked around. There was no gate there; just the arc of the gateway was marking the entrance to the structure enclosed by the walls. In the middle of the structure, there stood an enormous stone tower, with a window overlooking the entire place. It was a majestic place, with vast lawns of green, freshly-cut grass and many other towers surrounding the central tower, although these were nowhere near as tall as that tower.

As they continued to look around, they saw a number of people in brown, black, and purple capes heading hurriedly and noisily to a building on the far west side of the medieval structure. They tried to approach the people, most of whom did not even look older than they were.

In their rush, however, the people did not even notice the group coming and had already closed the ornate, double wooden doors behind them before the group could get within ten meters of their vicinity.

"Nya, they ignored us!" Eiji complained loudly.

"Eiji…" Oishi tried calming him down. "They were probably in a hurry"

"Did you all see them?" Ann asked the group. "What they were wearing, I mean. Capes?"

A few of the others nodded.

"Maybe they're cosplaying!" proposed Momoshiro, with a huge grin on his face.

"Yeah, says you" Kamio snidely remarked.

"You guys, quiet!" Kippei ordered the two of them. "Can you hear that?"

They all strained their ears, because from inside the building, a muffled sound had resounded through the air. They could tell that many people were inside the building, and that those people were the ones creating the sound.

They all looked at each other in confusion…

* * *

**As if SLORS wasn't bad enough, my review per hit ratio has gotten worse, it's now two reviews every seventy hits.**

**I've abandoned the five reviews per chapter. I believe that I'll go stoic on the whole reviews system. It's not like I started writing this fic to get reviews, and I swore to myself when I started that I wouldn't become dependent on reviews (I mentioned this in Chapter 2, minus the five-per-chapter bit). Godspeed! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Eh… You know the drill…**

**Two months without posting an update might have taken away any edge I might have ever gained in terms of fanfiction writing.**

**I can focus on writing for a while since I have no other responsibilities for the upcoming summer. I'll make up for lost time by uploading a few more updates, and maybe two or three new series…**

* * *

Chapter 5: YOU GOT GAME? Donna SPEED no naka mo… (You got game? In any speed…)

"That's weird…" Taka said. "What are they saying?"

"It's not Japanese…" Fuji remarked, his eyes, surprisingly, open, revealing his blue irises.

"It's German, I think" Echizen remarked suddenly.

Everyone looked at the freshman with surprise.

"Not quite…" Tezuka told him, garnering a greater surprised look from everyone, including Echizen. "It's actually a mix between German and Gallic. It's old European"

"What are they saying, Tezuka-kun?" Kippei asked him, and everyone listened intently as the golden-haired captain of Seigaku cleared his throat to speak.

"To our great creator, Burihelum, and the Queen, her highness, I am grateful for this modest feast" he translated for them.

"Saa, sounds like a prayer…" Fuji remarked.

"They're praying?! Like to Buddha?!" Momoshiro asked, surprised.

"No" Kamio replied, sounding very much like Kaidoh.

"It's Itadakimasu in Japanese" Echizen corrected his senpai. "Or rather, that's what it means, anyway…"

"They're eating a feast? Oishi-kun!" Eiji, with a huge grin on his face, grabbed Oishi by the arm and started to drag him towards the ornate, double wooden doors. "Let's join them! Nya!"

* * *

The two of them went down the spiral staircase that Kaidoh had run through last night. They went out of the tower and started crossing the fresh, green grass of the lawn just outside of it. Kaidoh was following Louise closely to the place she mentioned that they were going to have breakfast in.

As they did so, for one brief moment, an unpleasant wave of nausea had surged through Kaidoh, and he had almost fallen face first into the grass, with only his quick reflexes saving him from the fall. He had remembered the feeling of being levitated and tossed from side to side. He hated the unnatural feel of that action and at that point, he swore to himself that he would repay the person who levitated him with a whack on the head.

Louise looked back at her familiar when she noticed that he had stopped walking. Kaidoh, with one knee on the grass, was glaring off into space, his snake-like eyes seemingly giving a blank look.

At first, curiosity and concern danced on her face, but those emotions were quickly replaced with annoyance. She slowly walked towards her familiar and ordered him loudly.

"Oi! Hurry up!" she commanded, unhesitant, which jostled Kaidoh from the unpleasant interruption.

He stood up, and they continued walking to their destination, a building with ornate, double wooden doors, which was just across the lawn.

Inside the building was a grand dining hall, with four grand dining tables across it. Along the length of the tables, students were seated in a relatively orderly manner. They were in line, but they were chatting happily with the persons beside them. Some were laughing boisterously, and others were doing so quietly. There was a general air of laughter and glee among the students as they gathered for the beginning of breakfast.

When Louise and Kaidoh entered the building, many students stopped what they were doing to look up and stare at them. After a few seconds, they resumed their cheerful chatter.

Kirche and Montmorency were talking loudly about Louise just seconds before she entered the building. They took to whispering as she walked into the building with her familiar, Kaidoh.

"Here she comes" Kirche said. "The rumored runaway familiar and its master…"

Louise walked past the two, steadily moving through the grand dining hall, making her way to the single empty seat near the middle of the grand dining table to her left, with Kaidoh silently following behind her, sensing that it wasn't the right time to talk to the irritated girl in front of him.

Louise stopped abruptly in front of the empty seat, and looked at him expectantly. Kaidoh got the message, and pulled out the seat for her. He knew enough of foreign culture to know that it was a gentlemanly gesture to do so.

As she sat down, Kaidoh noticed that the grand dining table was laden with expensive porcelain dishes at every seat. Everything was gloriously prepared, a luxurious feast at every place at the table.

There was a large, freshly baked piece of bread to start with, and then an enticing tea-colored broth to the side. The main course was a gourmet, choice-cut, juicy steak with a rich brown sauce, topped with a sprig of mint and two small pieces of potato on the side. There was an extra dish of lasagna, coated in a beautiful layer of tomato sauce and cheese, with some white ranch sauce on top. Desert was a slice from a sugary-sweet strawberry cake. Then, to top it all off, a light champagne in an expensive wine glass.

The mere sight of the food made his stomach growl unexpectedly, and it solicited a small sigh of agreement mixed with a small hiss of disapproval from himself.

Louise gave him a look that silently screamed at him with her disapproval. He looked downwards mock-humbly and to his surprise, found a small, cracked plate on the floor. Curiously, he whispered a question to Louise.

"Why is that there?" he asked her.

"Only nobles are allowed to sit at the tables" she said in reply.

Kaidoh gave her a blatant look which showed his utter confusion, but she hissed at him to sit down on the floor as the last students entered the dining hall and soon, they were about to start eating.

"To our great creator, Burihelum, and the Queen, her highness, I am grateful for this modest feast" they simultaneously started chanting, blessing the food with their palms together in benevolent prayer.

Behind Louise's chair, on the floor, Kaidoh was also blessing his humble meal, a single piece of stale bread, with no complaint. He had a deep-rooted respect for food and the people who prepare them. He always has, because it was his way of showing deep gratitude. He did this ritual on every meal, since he was so used to doing it whenever his mother, Hozumi Kaidoh, would give him one of her famous home-made lunches.

* * *

"Eiji!" Oishi tried to restrain his hyperactive friend. "Taka-san, help!"

Taka and Oishi just barely managed to keep Eiji from bursting through the doors.

Meanwhile, Inui was talking to Ann. Both of them were looking at the fresh, green grass of the lawn at the far west side of the castle-like structure. More specifically, Ann was looking at a clear footprint on the grass while Inui was furiously scribbling down notes in one of his green notebooks.

"Puma…" Inui noted. "Kaidoh's shoes."

"And they're headed towards that building, the same one that those caped people went into" Ann said, surprised.

Momoshiro, who was quietly analyzing their environment just like when he gets serious in a tennis match, looked up at her as she said this. Kamio also looked up. Both of them had just arrived to the same conclusion.

The group gathered around Inui and Ann as they started explaining a plan of action to most of them. Echizen was beside Tezuka, who was discussing some serious matter with Fuji and Tachibana under the shade of a tree. Taka and Oishi were still holding onto Eiji, though it was unnecessary, since he was not trying to get into the building anymore, but instead, was listening intently to the plan.

"We should observe what happens for a while" Inui said. "It is not a good idea to rush into the building."

"It will cause a commotion" Ann added. "I don't think they are used to foreigners barging into their buildings… They might not even understand our language, as far as I can tell."

"Then, we'll make them understand!" Momoshiro loudly cut in. "Right, Kamio?"

"I agree!" Kamio replied. "We came to get Kaidoh, and he's in there… We're going inside!"

"Don't be so reckless!" Ann scolded the two, while the others either ignored the three or gave a great sigh of surrender at the start of another loud bickering discussion.

Momoshiro and Kamio looked at each other, and both put on a big grin. Ann looked at their curious behavior with contempt, and got a light pat from both of them on her head.

"You worry too much, Ann-chan" Kamio reassured her.

"It wouldn't matter if we barge in now" Momoshiro added.

"Why not?!" Ann threw the question at them, getting all the more confused and annoyed by the two, who frankly, were not making much sense to her at all.

"Because they're about to come out, right about… now" the two of them explained.

As they said this, the ornate wooden double doors opened suddenly, slamming into Eiji's face and knocking him as well as Taka and Oishi onto the stone wall, nearly crushed by the wooden doors. Oishi and Taka muffled Eiji's cry of pain. Meanwhile, most of the members of the two tennis teams scrambled to hide behind the bushes and overgrowth near the stone walls. Inui, Ann, Momoshiro, and Kamio were already positioned out-of-view to begin with. They just had to duck to be invisible to the ones passing through the doorway. Shinji walked calmly to the bushes and ducked next to Kamio. Tezuka, Fuji, Tachibana and Echizen just stood silently where they were and they went unnoticed, the same tree that gave them shade became their hiding place.

A man in a white, long-sleeved shirt was slowly backing up through the doorway. He was carrying what appeared to be a round, white, steel table with two chairs stacked above it. As he exited the building, the other end of the table came into view, being carried by another man in white. They looked very much like kitchen personnel, which they most probably were, based on their chef hats. Following them was a young lady in a maid's uniform. Her short, straight, black hair blew freely in the breeze, not being a hindrance at all. She was carrying a metal platter with a few dishes on it. Her sweet scent was that of tea and cake, and it wafted into the air as she passed the two teams. There were about fourteen other pairs of people carrying tables and chairs that followed them, and four other maids carrying metal platters and dishes. They were setting up the tables on the west-most lawn just behind the building for some sort of casual gathering. Within ten minutes, they were finished. The men in white went back into the building, relieved after finishing the hard work, whilst the maids stood at the ready near the tables. As the double doors finally closed again, Eiji, Taka, and Oishi were able to walk slowly back to their companions

Both the Seigaku and the Fudomine teams observed the preparations silently. Shinji, who was muttering earlier, had gone dead silent. Ann noticed it and she tapped Inui, Kamio and Momoshiro on the back, and then pointed to Shinji.

"What's wrong, Shinji-kun?" Kamio asked his friend.

Shinji was not looking at the preparations and the maids. He was staring blankly to the side, his jaw hanging loose. Kamio turned his heads to look at what Shinji was staring at, and his jaw dropped loose as well. Thoroughly confused, Ann and Momoshiro turned their heads as well, and what they saw made their jaws drop.

A half a dozen meters away for the tables, a gathering of a different sort had already occurred. A strange array of even stranger creatures was gathered near the side of the building. Variedly colored creatures all together, creatures of magical and demonic affiliations, creatures that shouldn't possibly be gathered, were waiting at the side. Some were ordinary animals, while others were variedly colored versions of animals. Some were mythical creatures, while others looked as if torn between alternate dimensions. Amazing creatures of all shapes and sizes were gathered, unmoving, as if obediently waiting.

All the other tennis players were also staring at the creatures now. They all looked to Inui for an explanation, but Inui was just as dumbfounded as they were. That did not stop him, however, from furiously scribbling descriptions of the creatures onto one of his green notebooks.

Soon, a few more people, younger than the ones before, came out of the building and started walking out into the lawn, towards the tables and seats that were prepared for them. They were all wearing black capes, the same as the ones that the two teams saw earlier. The creatures started joining them, one by one aligning itself beside a single black-caped person. Every person had a creature that acted familiar only to him or her. They all went to a table of their choice, and each person started interacting with either the creature that they were with, or other persons and their creatures.

"Weird…" Momoshiro commented as he hid in the bushes.

"Those creatures…" Ann said, "…are they real?!"

"They can't be…" Kamio remarked.

"It's illogical…" Inui added, "…this entire situation is illogical, on the other hand, this place might have different fauna… hmmm… this is good data."

"Inui-senpai, don't you ever think of anything besides gathering and using data?!" Momoshiro asked, exasperated.

Just then, their conversation was interrupted by a loud bicker getting nearer their position. They ducked for cover, as two people came out through the doorway. Most of them could not see the two's faces, since they were too busy hiding their own selves, nor could they understand a single word of the incoming conversation, but they could tell that it was a young lady who was speaking. She was speaking rapidly in the old European language that Tezuka translated for them. Once in a while, the other person would reply in a deep, hoarse voice in the same language. It seemed that the other person was half-hearted in his responses, otherwise bored.

Tezuka took a brief look at the two, and he was surprised, though he didn't make a sound, nor did he show it on his face. Echizen, Fuji, and Tachibana also looked, and they had the same reaction. They kept silent behind the thick tree trunk that they were using as a hiding place, waiting until they could rejoin the rest of the group.

* * *

Louise stepped out of the building and onto the grass of the nearby lawn, followed closely and nonchalantly by Kaidoh.

"Really, during a meal, Familiars are supposed to be on standby outside." She told him. "It's a special request for you to have been next to me."

"What are they all doing there?" Kaidoh asked suddenly, completely ignoring Louise's statement. He was looking at the gathered other students

Though thoroughly annoyed, Louise let it slide and answered him.

"There are no lessons for the Second Years today; it's to start communication with the Familiars they had just summoned" she explained.

"Oh?" a voice cut in from behind them.

The two started to turn around, curious as to the purpose of the interruption. Kaidoh let out a small hiss…

Fshuuuuu…

To his surprise, he got a reply…

Fshuuuuu…

They were met by the crimson head and glowing yellow eyes of a strange creature. It had three ridges at each side of its head; two were framing its sharp, snake-like eyes; two were at the side of its face, and two were positioned at its jawline, making its appearance all the more menacing. It had a wide, open mouth that made it look as if it was giving them an evil, toothless grin. It was standing on all four, clawed feet. It was a deep crimson on its back, and a pale red under its belly. It had a massive tail, at the tip of which was a bright orange flame. Kneeling beside it was Kirche, her red hair being a perfect match with the creature's scales. She was gently stroking it on the back.

Kaidoh blinked twice, his face showing a look of surprise. He stared deeply at it, taking in the strange sight. Meanwhile, Louise was glaring, annoyed, at Kirche and her smug grin. She gave a small laugh at their reactions.

"Is this the first time you've seen a salamander?" Kirche asked Kaidoh. "Don't worry. A contracted Familiar is absolutely obedient to its Master; You won't run away… Right, Flame?"

The "salamander" wagged its tail cheerfully, as Kirche smiled even more smugly than before.

Kaidoh immediately noticed that Kirche was making a direct attack at Louise. He had just tried to escape from the strangeness of this world the previous night. He realized that his actions must have humiliated Louise, being the person that everyone thinks is his master. He looked at Louise, who was getting extremely annoyed.

"Mind your own business!" Louise retorted angrily.

Kirche stood up and looked Louise directly in the eyes.

"Hey, you probably just grabbed a commoner that was walking by, didn't you?" Kirche asked Louise just to annoy her even more, which she succeeded in doing. "You deceived us quite well with that explosion."

"You're wrong." Louise said. "I made a proper summon and he just came out!"

"Well, he's just fitting for you, isn't he?" Kirche declared in her face. "Louise the Zero" she added with an annoying high-pitched laugh.

She walked away, still laughing, leaving Louise in a horrible mood.

"What's up with that girl?!" Louise asked no one in particular, clenching her fists in anger. She immediately turned on the closest living thing to her and took out her anger on it. In this case, it was Kaidoh. She took a deep gasp and then screamed at him.

"Don't just stand there! At the very least, get me some tea!" she ordered him and then turned around and stormed off.

Kaidoh was left there, dumbfounded at the sudden turn of events. It took ten seconds for his brain to register what the furious young lady had just ordered him to do. He let out a long, drawn-out hiss…

Fshuuuuu…

* * *

**After two months of putting it off, I finally finished this chapter...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Eh… You know the drill…**

**I can be such a hypocrite. I said that I would make up for lost time. So here I have another update. But it has been over month since my last update. This fic is, of course, being read. It's just that people don't know how to click the Go button at the bottom of each chapter.**

**How depressing…**

**I have my reasons for being gone these past weeks, and it's not sloth.**

**Check my updated profile. Stay honest; you'll get what I mean… eventually.**

* * *

Chapter 6: Toki wa kawaranai RHYTHM o kizande (Time engraves an unchanging rhythm)

Kaidoh let his arms hang limp as he slouched. He walked around slowly with his snake-like eyes half open, not really noticing the people around him. He had decided to put up with that kind of treatment from Louise just until he could find a way to get home. He expected that he would have to be the object that she would vent on for a little while longer…

He closed his eyes and let out a small hiss of exasperation as he walked.

Fshuuuuu…

When he opened his eyes again, a single enormous eyeball was staring at him. It had four long, thin, lightning-shaped appendages, a horn on top, a sort of finger on each side, and a long tail below it. A layer of purple skin for eyelids covered its back and appendages. It was floating at his face, its pupil almost touching the bridge of his nose.

He stared at it for a while and it stared at him right back. His mind did not fully register what he was seeing, until the creature did the most obvious action it could possibly do. It blinked.

Kaidoh jumped back, letting out a roar of shock. He collided with someone behind him, nearly falling back as he tripped on a pair of feet. A high gasp came from the person behind as the clanking of dish and tray resounded and something fell to the grass.

The creature floated away nonchalantly, oblivious to the commotion it had just caused.

"I apologize" Kaidoh turned to the person behind him, bowing appropriately.

When he looked up, he saw a young lady with short, straight, black hair. She was wearing what looked like a black maid's uniform with a white apron. She was carrying an empty tray. It should have had a dish but he noticed that the plate and the brown slice of cake were on the grass, already dirty.

"No, it's ok. I am fine" the young lady replied reassuringly as she bent down to pick up the cake and the plate.

"Please, let me" Kaidoh quickly picked up the slice and the plate. He knew when he was at fault.

"Thank you" she thanked him as he placed the slice on the plate and placed them onto the tray she was carrying.

As he did so, she noticed the strange symbols etched on the back of his left hand. She stared at them, before looking up at Kaidoh's face with a curious look on her own face.

"Could you perhaps be the one who became Ms. Valier's Familiar?" she asked him suddenly.

"I suppose so…" Kaidoh replied, quite uncaringly.

The young lady noticed his reaction, or lack thereof and quickly lowered her head and looked to the ground.

"Sorry…" she said. "I did not mean to be rude…"

"It's nothing…" Kaidoh assured her. "I just do not like the idea of staying in this strange place. Anyway, how did you come to know of me?"

"For a commoner to be summoned as a Familiar is quite big news" she explained. "And when I saw that rune on your left hand, I thought it might be you."

"Rune on my left hand?" Kaidoh asked, perplexed. He had never noticed anything wrong with his left hand at all. He was completely unaware of what the young lady was talking about.

He looked at his left hand and stood rooted on the spot, his face contorted in rage that he was trying desperately to subdue. His fists were clenched and his shoulders tightened, and he almost shook with anger.

The young lady watched, half curious and half afraid, as the person in front of her let out a long, drawn-out hiss to calm himself down…

Fshuuuuu…

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

After the two persons passed, Tezuka, Fuji, Echizen and Tachibana rejoined the rest of the group. Eiji, Taka, and Oishi comically pried themselves off the stone wall and rejoined the group as well. When all of them were accounted for, Tachibana revealed to the rest of them what he had just seen.

"The two who had just passed… one of them was Kaidoh!" he told them all.

"What?!" most of them yelled in unison.

"That was Mamushi?" Momoshiro asked incredulously. "Let's go get him, then!"

"Wait, Momo-senpai!" Echizen stopped him just as he was about to race off to chase the two. "There was someone with him, a foreign girl about as old as me."

Momoshiro blinked for a few moments, and then his eyes closed. He put on a huge grin and held his chin as if deep in thought.

"Ah… young love!" Momoshiro remarked suddenly, sounding very much like an old man.

All of them in the group stared at him weirdly. Kamio knocked him on the back of the head and made him snap out of his daze.

"YOU IDIOT!" Kamio reprimanded him as he grasped the spot where Kamio hit him. "Kaidoh is just the same age as us!"

"I was only kidding…" Momoshiro said, wincing from the pain.

"That wasn't the point, Momo-senpai" Echizen scowled. "They were both talking in old European. Only Tezuka-buchou can communicate."

With that, everybody looked to Tezuka, but he was not paying attention to the discussion. The golden-haired Seigaku captain was looking to his side at the building where the two came from with a look that was even more serious than the one he usually has. However, when they turned to look at the spot that Tezuka was staring at, nothing was there that seemed out of the ordinary.

"Saa, Tezuka?" Fuji said as he placed his hand on Tezuka's shoulder. "What is it?"

"Be careful, all of you…" Tezuka said to the group ominously. "I believe that someone has already seen us…"

"We can't do anything about that anymore…" Tachibana Kippei said. "What do you think we should do about Kaidoh and the other person?"

"Pursuing and observing them is the best option at the moment" Inui answered his question, looking up from his collected notes. "From my previous data on Kaidoh, I believed that he could not speak any other languages besides Japanese and English. He does speak a little bad German, though…"

"Right! Let's go spy on Mamushi and that foreigner!" Momoshiro declared loudly to the sky, striking his fist up as well.

"YOU IDIOT!" Kamio reprimanded the loud Seigaku player as he knocked him on the back of the head again. "Do you want those foreigners to find out where we are?"

"It doesn't matter anymore" Momoshiro suddenly said seriously, earning a surprised look from Kamio and the rest of the group. "Someone has already seen us earlier…"

"Good point" Kamio gave in to his surprisingly logical reasoning.

The group started heading slowly towards the lawn at the west side of the building where the caped people were with the strange creatures; the place where Kaidoh and his companion walked towards. They still kept themselves securely hidden in the bushes, almost completely ignoring the agreement of Kamio and Momoshiro to throw caution to the wind.

As the group started moving, Tezuka let out a quiet sigh of exasperation. Fuji noticed it immediately from his best friend and rival.

"Saa, Tezuka?" Fuji asked him, surprised by this extremely rare occurrence of a show of any emotion at all.

"This is one of the reasons I rarely go with you when you all hang out…" Tezuka said quietly to his brown-haired friend as he walked.

Fuji smirked at this as he followed their beloved team captain…

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"Is everything ok?" the young lady asked the peculiar person in front of her.

"Yes…" Kaidoh replied. After those few moments of rage, he was finally able to calm himself down. "Sorry for that. It's just that I really am not pleased with this rune, as you call it."

"Eh?" she asked, utterly confused at how a simple rune can make someone that displeased. "Why, what does it say? A name?"

"No" Kaidoh replied bluntly, as this was his usual way of answering.

"Sorry, I haven't introduced myself…" the young lady apologized, trying to pick up the conversation on a more pleasant note. "I have been blest to serve here. My name is Siesta, just a mere commoner like you."

"Kaoru Kaidoh" Kaidoh introduced himself with a nod. "I do not understand this Noble – Commoner thing… and why do you all stand for their abuse?"

"The people who can cast magic are Nobles and all others are Commoners" Siesta thoroughly explained to him with a voice just barely louder than a whisper. "No commoner can really go against a noble; we are all no match for them."

Just as she finished saying this, a loud call resounded at them, making them both turn to the direction that the call was coming from.

"Oi! Is the cake still not ready?" the blond boy who called out complained to them.

To Kaidoh, the boy's voice seemed familiar. For a single moment, he racked his brain to figure out when and where he had heard that voice before, until nausea almost overcame him again as he finally recognized that voice.

"_He's that irritating moron I passed in the hallway last night!" Kaidoh thought harshly, as, for the second time that day, rage overcame him. "He was the one who levitated me!"_

He vividly remembered the sickening sensation of being forcefully levitated, and he felt his wrath rising even more. Earlier that morning, he swore to himself that he would make the pitiful person who dared to do that to him pay… and he decided rather rashly that this was the perfect time to do so. Opportunity presented itself to him as he was soon brought back to reality.

"Yes, right away!" Siesta apologetically replied to him.

When she was about to head off to fetch another slice of cake, Kaidoh quickly grabbed the platter she was holding and took it from her hands.

"This is fine for that stuck-up moron" Kaidoh told her bluntly.

"Eh? But that's been…" Siesta started to speak, but she immediately closed and covered her mouth, a mixture of shock and fear etched on her face as she stared at Kaidoh.

He had just shot her a glare even more menacing than his usual snake-like glower. It was almost as if he had entered into a devil-like state, telling her quite plainly that it was not wise to try and stop him at the moment.

Kaidoh walked towards the blond male and his lady companion, his mind one-tracked about his resolve to punish the arrogant fool.

The blond, known as Guiche, was seated, having tea with Montmorency, the blond girl with big, long locks he was with the morning before. The male was carrying on his lap what looked to be a gigantic, brown, ridged mole with a blue, inverted triangle on its forehead and long fore and hind claws. He was stroking its head as he talked, trying to impress his companion, who had a tiny orange toad, which was flicking out its tongue to make heart shapes in front of itself. With his usual arrogance, he tried to pick up the conversation at where it left off.

"Your familiar is also cute, just like you" Guiche said to her in true player fashion.

"You're as flattering as ever!" Montmorency replied, giggling a bit.

"Well, I cannot tell lies in front of your eyes" Guiche added to his flattery.

"Of course, you just don't mention the lies you conduct, right?" Kaidoh rudely interrupted their conversation with his deep, husky voice.

"What the?!" Guiche exclaimed, surprised at the sudden intrusion.

"But recently, I have been hearing a rumor that you're also dating a first year!" Montmorency told him harshly. "Hey, Guiche, what is he talking about?"

Before Guiche could even get out a single syllable to explain himself, Kaidoh interrupted again.

"So the brown cape worn by the girl you were with last night meant that she was a first year…" he muttered, audibly enough for Montmorency to hear every word.

Knowing full well that he was caught in the web of lies that he himself created, Guiche sought for the only way out that he knew.

"Montmorency! It's noisy here, so… ah… let's go over there, under that shade!" he said desperately, standing up, grabbing the blond girl firmly by the wrist and pulling her away from the table and more importantly, away from Kaidoh. In his haste, he left his furry, brown familiar on his chair, and as he left, it waved its right fore claws at him as if to wave goodbye.

Kaidoh stared at it startlingly with his snake-like eyes and it stared right back at him with its deep, dark brown eyes. They continued to stare at each other for a few more seconds, and a light blush of mixed curiosity and animalistic pheromone made its way to Kaidoh's face. Kaidoh has always had a weakness for cute and fuzzy animals, and it was calling to him to play with this peculiar one in front of him. He slowly approached it with a cautious hand, as Guiche continued to drag Montmorency away.

By a sharp twist of fate, the first year aforementioned, known as Katie, was just across the lawn, and quickly approaching. She was carrying a white picnic basket with both hands as she walked. She seemed to be looking for someone specifically, and would once in a while turn her head to a random direction, trying to find someone familiar to ask. Upon seeing Kaidoh, she walked over to him hesitantly.

Kaidoh was preoccupied, crouched, and playing with Guiche's lovable mole familiar. He was making it chase a stalk of a weed, and it was happily obliging.

"Ano… aren't you the commoner familiar that we saw last night?" Katie asked him quietly. "Have you seen the person I was with then, Guiche-sama?"

Kaidoh, although annoyed, stood up, stopped what he was doing, and tried not to be disrespectful. As he did so, he got another idea that would become the perfect coup de grace to the damage and seed of doubt that he had already planted earlier.

"Over there…" he said seriously, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder.

When Katie peered over his shoulder as well, her face lit up with excitement. She went past him without so much as a thank you as she rushed off towards Guiche, who was still dragging Montmorency by the wrist.

When Guiche saw her coming, he quickly let go of Montmorency and smiled an innocent smile just as she approached. This ushered a suspicious look from Montmorency, who, after being dragged like a child, was not at all pleased.

"Ah… K… Katie!" Guiche greeted her innocently. "Hey…"

"I've been looking all over for you, Guiche-sama!" Katie said excitedly, raising her white picnic basket. "This is the homemade soufflé I was talking about last night. I thought it would be perfect for today's tea party."

"What… why… thank you!" Guiche thanked her, sensing his imminent doom.

"Last night?" Montmorency asked incredulously.

"Well, you see…" Guiche tried to explain, failing horribly.

"You brought it on yourself for two timing…" Kaidoh said camly, and in the process, sealed Guiche to his fate.

"Y… you!" Guiche looked at him with despair. In a last ditch effort he stood up straight and pointed accusingly at Kaidoh. "You're creating a superfluous misunderstanding between these two girls!"

At this overly dramatic declaration, people who had been previously busy with their own familiars stopped what they were doing and started gathering around the unfolding scene.

"What's this, what's this…" a plump blond male with an owl familiar perched on his wide shoulders said to the other people watching, effectively attracting even more attention to Guiche. "It seems Guiche is starting something with that Commoner Familiar."

"Pitiful… trying to blame it on me" Kaidoh said exasperated. With that, he let out a small hiss of annoyance.

Fshuuuuu…

"Two timing?!" Katie said worriedly, not wanting to believe that it was true.

"So you were putting your hands on this first year?!" Montmorency screamed at him, her face contorted in rage.

"You're mistaken, Montmorency the Perfume!" Guiche tried to calm the now hysterical girl. "Please do not warp your rose-like face with anger! This is some type of mistake!"

At this, Katie almost burst into tears.

"How awful of you!" Katie said, crushed about this incident. "You said we were together!"

"In any case, both of you calm down…" Guiche said desperately, this time looking as if he really feared for his own safety, knowing full well that he had no way out of this mess.

The two wouldn't hear of it.

"YOU LIAR!!!" Montmorency and Katie shrieked angrily at him at the same time.

And with that, Montmorency slapped Guiche so powerfully that he staggered back and then fell down painfully on his butt, as the two scorned women stormed off in different directions.

The audience that had gathered earlier started laughing at Guiche, who had a large, red, hand-shaped slap mark on his left cheek.

"You got dumped… by two different girls, Guiche!" the plump blond male said gleefully. "Well, it was your own doing!"

At first Guiche looked down to the ground because of the complete humiliation of the scandal, but he looked up to see Kaidoh's emotionless face staring blankly at him, and his rage got the better of him. He stood up and faced Kaidoh directly.

"It seems you…" Guiche started to speak angrily, "… do not know the etiquette towards a noble"

"Noble or otherwise…" Kaidoh replied bluntly, looking . "I don't give a damn…"

"Very well." Guiche said. He had an evil look in his eyes as he looked Kaidoh in the eye. This look was something Kaidoh returned with a fiercer glare with his snake-like eyes.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"What is that stupid Mamushi doing?!" Momoshiro scowled quietly to no one in particular.

The two teams were just around the curvature of the building's walls, watching the scene unfold from a distance. Two girls, a blonde wearing a black cape, and a brunette wearing a brown cape, had just stormed off from the uproarious crowd. In the middle was a blond male confronting Kaidoh, who, in turn, had his back turned to them.

"Shhh…" Ann put her finger up to her mouth and looked disapprovingly at him. "I can't hear them at all."

"No offense intended, Tachibana Ann-chan" Shinji started murmuring to her. "However, even if you hear them, you would not fully understand their conversation, seeing as they are speaking in old European…"

"That isn't what I meant" Ann told him quietly. "Just a few minutes ago, I could hear that they were making a big fuss about something, now they're too quiet."

"What were they saying, Tezuka? Tachibana Kippei turned his head behind him to face his friend, who was, in turn, out of sight. "What the…?!"

"Hey… Fuji-ko isn't here either!" Eiji exclaimed to the group.

"What?!" most of the group yelled out.

"Shhh…" Ann put her finger up to her mouth again and tried to calm them down. "Quiet, you guys!"

"I'm sure that they have a good reason for doing so…" Oishi said. In fact, it was quite the opposite, for he wasn't sure at all.

"At any rate, Echizen can be a substitute!" Momoshiro declared with a huge grin on his face, knowing full well how to piss off his favorite kouhai.

"That's right, Ochibi!" Eiji added innocently, but he gave himself away with the mischievous grin that he also had on his face.

With a scowl, the stoic first year pulled his red and white cap lower on his head to hide his eyes. His two senpais were 'reminding' him of how he got all sulky when he was just made a substitute at the Junior Invitational Tournament and just got lucky to compete because one of their contestants, Kirihara Akaya, got injured in mid-game.

"It's not as if you could talk, Momo-senpai" Echizen put on a grin of his own as he decided to strike back. "You didn't even get in…"

With a laugh, Momoshiro took all in good stride and patted Echizen on the back thrice, whether by chance or on purpose, effectively knocking the wind right out of him. "Hai, Hai. You're right."

"Anyway, Echizen, what were they saying?" Oishi asked him, ignoring the previous good-willed exchange.

"A duel…" Echizen restated, concentrating on the heated confrontation in the middle of the crowd. "The blond guy just challenged Kaidoh-senpai to a fight… and he accepted."

"Eh?!" the group exclaimed as loud as they could without alerting anyone else of their location.

"Not good…" Momoshiro said solemnly. "That guy must be crazy…"

"Are you talking about the foreigner or Kaidoh-kun?" Ann asked him quietly. "I mean… you challenge him all the time and you fight a lot too."

"The blond guy" Momoshiro replied worriedly. "It's different when we fight. We're rivals, so it comes naturally for us to fight each other, and we're used to it. After all, we are still teammates. But that guy is a complete stranger. If he makes Mamushi snap, he's dead… literally."

"You can't be serious, right?" Ann asked incredulously.

"I'd forgotten that…" Echizen sighed. "Kaidoh-senpai goes berserk when he gets too frustrated or annoyed."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"I'll be waiting in the grounds in front of the Vestry!" Guiche declared challengingly. He pointed a rose to Kaidoh's face, before storming off.

Kaidoh looked at the furious Guiche with disinterest as the blond went farther away. He was about to let out a hiss of exasperation…

Fsh---

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Louise cried at his ear, and Kaidoh lost his hearing momentarily. She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him away from the crowd.

"What the hell were you thinking foolishly accepting that duel?!" Louise asked him incredulously, still dragging him.

"Where are you taking me?" Kaidoh asked her, completely ignoring her earlier question.

"To apologize to Guiche, if we hurry, he may forgive you" Louise explained hurriedly.

"I refuse" Kaidoh said bluntly, stopping in his tracks and pulling his hand away from her grasp.

"You really understand nothing! A Commoner can never overcome a Noble!" She screamed at him, scrunching up her eyes in annoyance. "You're lucky if you get out of this just hurt!"

When she opened her eyes to continue scolding him, she found that he was nowhere in sight.

* * *

**The new fics still aren't done...**

**How depressing...**


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